StarMine, one of the more analytical of the analysts gongs, has revealed its top names for 2014 exclusively in City A.M.

Part of the Thomson Reuters Awards for Excellence programme, the StarMine Analyst Awards measure the performance of sell-side analysts based on the returns of their buy and sell recommendations relative to industry benchmarks; and the accuracy of their earnings estimates.

Appearing at the top of the Best Earnings Estimators list and third in the Best Stock Pickers list is Benjamin Rosenberger, a former UBS analyst now making his punts at Tudor Investment.

Rosenberger’s bullishness on Taylor Wimpey as the stock price rose from 65.1p to 111p (up 71 per cent) helped to push him to third place in StarMine’s stock picking award.

He was pipped in this category by Goldman Sachs’ Franklin Walding, whose winning pick was his “buy” on Ted Baker as its price shot up from 1,075.2p to 2,228.5p (up 107 per cent).

Andrew Wade at Numis came in second with his “buy” call on Ocado.

In the top broker’s category, Numis came out on top with 15 awards, closely followed by JP Morgan Cazenove with 11. Goldman Sachs, RBC Capital Markets and UBS all came in joint third with 10 awards each.

■ It's been a good week for the offspring of Icap chief exec Michael Spencer. The City bigwig passed the trust fund he had been squirrelling away for his children from his name to theirs on Tuesday, as the youngest child reached “the relevant age”. The fund held 50,000 Icap shares, which will now be held in his three children’s names – worth an estimated £189,000, based on a share price of 367p – should they cash them in today. Spencer’s familial generosity hasn’t left him too short though; he still owns 109,372,828 shares in Icap.